Anti-Terrorism Squad, Ahmedabad, (ATSA) today seized 54 weapons and exposed a major arms scam in Saurashtra. The ATSA has registered a case and is conducting further investigations. Saurashtra is seeing increasing number large-scale arms smuggling incidents lately, and this has led to young people taking up violence in the region.
This successful operation by ATSA came about as DYSP Harsh Upadhyay had received a tip that the two convicts of attempted-murder, who were on parole, would be at Geeta Mandir in Ahmedabad and were carrying a sizeable number of weapons with them. Upadhya’s team nabbed the two men and found four weapons, including two Indian-made pistols, with them. Upon interrogation, the two men told the authorities that they had bought the pistols from Madhya Pradesh as a customer from Vadodara had asked for them.
Further investigation revealed that the two men brought arms from Madhya Pradesh and sold them in Surendranagar, Botad and Rajkot. It was revealed that more than 100 weapons had been sold. Police have seized 24 suspects and 54 weapons within 24 hours.
The 24 suspects have been arrested and have been booked under series of charges including armed robbery, attempted murder and Prohibition Act. They have been booked at several several police stations including Sayla, Chotila and Paliyad.
Besides Arms and ammunition, ATS has been extremely active in watching out for drugs entering the country. Just last week, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Gujarat ATS successfully seized 9,650 kgs of drugs. This consignment, one of the biggest till date, is said to be worth thousands of crores of rupees.
